If you get sick and tired of the rah rah hype of women’s College gymnastics, you’ll love the Stanford preseason recap video.
It’s so understated, I’d call it humble.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Stanford girls finished 4th as a team last season with a super smart team strategy. They were the best coached team, I felt.
Why?
It’s so difficult to get into Stanford that the talent pool of potential athletes is small. By contrast, girls with bad grades still get into UCLA and Florida. (Though not Kytra Hunter, so far. She’s trying to improve her test scores to join the Gators.)
As a result, many years Stanford struggles with enough depth to compete against the top teams. They’ve learned to train very safely. And to construct routines to get the highest score possible with the minimum risk.
Alabama and especially Florida gamble with bigger difficulty, and it sometimes costs them.
To me Stanford looks deeper and better than I can ever recall. Kristina Vaculik could win the NCAA all-around, as far as I’m concerned.
http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js
They’ve lost coach Mike Lorenzen (now at Arizona State) but brought back Tabitha Yim.
… I’m feeling the love for the Cardinal in 2011. Early prediction: Florida, UCLA, Stanford 1-2-3 at Championships.
(Stanford was ranked 6th in the preseason coach’s poll.)
Gymnastics Coaching.com 